


The Best

by blueelvewithwings



Series: Spanking Sunday [26]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Aftercare, Canonical Character Death, Cathartic Spanking, Consent is not explicitly given but Mick implies that he's okay with this, Excessive Cookie Eating, F/F, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Making Up, Mildly Dubious Consent, Non-Sexual Spanking, Punishment, Sara and Mick are buddies, Spanking, That Mick and Ava bonding moment including snickerdoodles and Mick's book
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 14:21:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17982749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueelvewithwings/pseuds/blueelvewithwings
Summary: After Mick calls Ava a clone, Sara comes to his room to discipline him for an insult like that. Somewhere along the way, his observations on Sara and her girlfriend allow his grief for his late husband break through. Sometimes it takes seeing another one's pain to be able to deal with your own, after all.





	The Best

**Author's Note:**

> //this was supposed to be somewhat lighthearted and cracky and then Len snuck his face in and it went downhill real fast. I made myself sad. Congratulations, me.  
> Betaed by the lovely SophiaCatherine!

Mick knew that he was in trouble even before Sara came to his room. He had known he would be in trouble the moment Sara asked him and Ava to sit down and be civil. Ava wasn’t even a bad gal, she just had a stick up her ass and Mick knew he was still sore about Garima. If Sara could keep her clone girlfriend, why couldn’t he keep his written girlfriend?

He’d known that he really was in trouble the moment the word clone had slipped past his lips. Yeah, he probably shouldn’t have called Sharpe that, but it was true, anyway. Mick didn’t do mincing words. So Sara couldn’t blame him, really.

Nonetheless, he was resigned to his fate when the door opened and Sara stepped in. Mick could very much hold his own in a fight, but he had no illusions about his chances against Sara. So he just turned, raised an eyebrow, and waited. Knowing that he had shit coming his way didn’t mean he had to embrace it. 

“Really, Mick? What were you _thinking_?”

Mick shrugged and let his toolbox close audibly. “Just telling the truth.”

“The truth, my ass. Get over here.”

Mick looked at her, about to tell her that he did not take orders from anyone, but when he saw her face he managed to swallow his words for once and stood, walking over to her. He’d never seen her this furious before, and he  _had_ seen her go up against Damien Darhk. As soon as he was within reach, he found himself twisted around and bent over, his face pressed harshly into his weightlifting bench and a booted foot in his back. Damn, she really must be upset about that clone thing. 

“Why can’t you just _be civil_ for once?” He didn’t expect the harsh slap of one of her Escrima sticks on his behind, but maybe he should not have been surprised. He gave a grunt, but struggling against her boot was like struggling against a full skyscraper standing on his back. 

“Your clone girlfriend know you like spanking people besides her?” The slap that that comment brought him was a lot harsher, and he actually hissed in pain. Those metal things surely were not made for any kinky games. But at least he had his pants still on. Well, Sara wanted to discipline him, not harm him, he was sure of that. 

Sara hit him again, and he actually had to ball his fists to not react too much. “Thought you guys were doing the exclusive thing.”

He didn’t actually know why he was goading Sara on, but he guessed he deserved the next strike that brought him. 

“Why are you always such an _ass_?”

There was another strike now, this one laid over one of the previous ones, and Mick was sure he saw stars for a moment. 

“I know you can do better.” Mick had always loved Sara for respecting him, for seeing straight through his act of not understanding things, even though he still sometimes had hated her for joining in with the others in griping about and at him in their second year. 

“Just give her a chance, will you?” Every phrase was underlined with another stroke, and Mick couldn’t hold back another grunt. He wasn’t quite ready to give in, though. 

“If you can keep your clone, why can’t I keep Garima?” Yeah, maybe Ava wasn’t so bad, she had to have some redeeming qualities if Sara was with her. Sara wouldn’t be long-term with someone that was only good in bed, so it had to be more than that. 

“You know Garima was born out of that magical artifact we had to lock away,” Sara sighed, but still brought her stick down again. “And she’s a construct of your imagination, Mick, not a real person.”

“Well, your toygirl there is a clo-”

“Her being a clone doesn’t mean she’s fake, Mick!” Mick actually cried out at that strike, and balled his fists even closer together, pressing his nails into his palms to distract himself from the pain in his ass. Quite literally, for once. 

“All right, I take that one back.” He had known that was too much from the start, and he also knew it wasn’t really true, but fuck it, he had wanted Garima back, even though he knew that the book needed to be dealt with. 

“Good.” The accompanying strike felt anything but good, but Mick just bit down a yelp and endured it. He had had it coming, after all. 

“You need to learn to be more considerate.” Another strike. 

“You need to learn to get along with people better.” And another one.

“At least give them a chance.” And yet another.

“Mick, fuck, you can’t always go around and insult everyone!” Mick did cry out on that one, because it had been _vicious_. Sara still seemed to be fuming and went on, clearly taking out her anger on Mick’s backside. 

He’d known he’d be in trouble, but he hadn’t known that Sara would be this furious. How could he have? It had just been a little word, and it had even been the truth. 

He suddenly had a flash of a memory then, about that one time a worthless scumbag had called his Lenny a control freak. Seeing Len freeze up and panic rise in him had made Mick march forward and beat the asshole into a pulp, until what was left was barely recognisable as human remains anymore. 

Maybe Sharpe’s expression hadn’t been that different from Lenny’s, if he thought about it now. Huh. Sara must have it bad. 

“You like her a lot, don’t you?”

That had Sara pause in her tracks for a moment, but then she scoffed and let her Escrima come down again, though less hard than before. 

“What makes you say that, Mr. Obvious?”

“Oh, just...” He had Len’s face in front of him, suddenly - it appeared in his mind with such clarity, as if he was looking at him directly, with all the details that got blended out when he just absently thought about him. He closed his eyes and felt a tear escape, but he didn’t even mind that. Len’s face stayed where it was, and Mick was reminded of that time when Len had pulled him out of a fire because Mick had been too entranced to get out by himself, and he’d been about to pass out but Len had yelled at him and slapped his cheeks until he’d opened his eyes again, over and over and over again, until it felt like Len’s face was burned into the inside of his eyelids even when they eventually slipped closed. Mick had never seen a more beautiful sight than that. 

“Just… stuff.” His voice sounded much too soft for his liking, but it couldn’t be helped now. 

He’d have done anything for his Lenny. Anything at all to make him happy. 

Just like Sara did for Ava. 

Huh. The clone woman really must be something then. 

“Stuff?”

“She’s good for you. Ava, I mean.”

Sara let her staff come down another time and then stepped back, using the foot planted in Mick’s back to push herself off of him. Mick gave another grunt in response but otherwise didn’t move. 

“You say that now? What makes you say that?”

“You two remind me of… Len.” Of Len and me, he didn’t say. He wasn’t good with words, and talking about Lenny as still painful, even years later, long after he’d come to terms with his loss. Or drank his loss under the table, at least. 

Sara’s ass came into his view as she sat down beside him, and he turned his head enough so he was looking up at her. She looked more calm now, but also exhausted. 

“I still miss him too, you know.”

Mick wordlessly pushed himself up and wiped his few stray tears away. Missing him wouldn’t bring him back. “I know he wasn’t always good for me, and I wasn’t always good for him. ‘M doing better now, but he’s my husband, you know?” Mick patted Sara on the head, mussing it up in the way he knew she hated. “You better keep that Ava woman. One loss is enough.” 

He turned away then and opened the door to his room. His ass was hurting, and he needed to get away from the pictures of Len that were still swirling around in his mind. Maybe a beer or two would help. 

“Hey, Mick. I’m sorry for...” Sara trailed off when Mick turned to look back at her, and she looked lost, somehow. Mick didn’t know if she was trying to apologize for beating his ass or for Lenny. It didn’t matter, anyway. 

“Don’t be. It was the right thing.” There, that went for both of them as well. 

A couple of beers and some baking experimentation later, Mick found himself wandering into the same room as Ava was, and he approached while she was still engrossed in her book. The book that Mick had written, come to think of it. Curious. 

“Your woman’s a fierce one” he told her around a mouthful of cookie, causing Ava to look up. She gave him a tiny smile and folded the manuscript shut in her lap. 

“Someone should take her staves away though,” she responded, watching as Mick gingerly lowered himself into a chair next to her. Damn, but his ass hurt. Ava was sitting on an extra cushion as well, he noted and held back a chuckle. At least he wasn’t the only one who’d gotten a lesson.

“That snickerdoodle recipe’s good.” As if to prove what he was saying, he took another one of the cookies and pushed it into his mouth whole, and held it out as Ava reached over to take one as well. 

“I really like your book. It’s captivating.” She patted the paper in her lap, and Mick wondered where she had found it. Then again, she probably only needed to ask Zari where it was. That girl seemed to know everything on the ship. 

“You know, you don’t always have to be what you’re intended to be. Being a clone doesn’t mean you gotta be like everyone else. But you can’t escape your roots.” He grabbed another cookie and shoved it into his mouth. He had no idea where that came from, he thought. And then he thought about Len, set up to be nothing but a helper, a pawn in his father’s plan, only worth anything because his hands were small, and how he’d risen to become the best in all of Central City, and then grown more and become the hero he’d never wanted to be. So yeah… maybe he did know where that came from.

“Come to think of it, you might just be a great example of not being what life had intended for you,” was her reply as she took another cookie as well. “Sara thinks very highly of you. She’d defend you to the end of the world.” There was a cute little shrug that Ava just might have copied from Sara. 

“I feel like I could grow to see why, if we get to know each other better.”

Mick refused to cry again in front of her, but he knew his voice sounded a little watery anyway. “She’s good. Hold on tight to her. Losing her is not a pain you want to learn about.” 

Ava looked curious as she looked him over, but she didn’t comment on the tears that he knew were standing in his eyes again. “I’m sorry about your husband, Mick. I’m sure he was a good person.”

That had Mick choking on both laughter and tears, and he quickly ate another cookie to buy himself some time. Also, they were really good. 

“No, he wasn’t. But he was the best.”

  


–

“Hey, Clone, behind you!”

Sara tossed Mick a glare that could probably instantly kill him, but Ava turned around and smashed her staff right into the slobbering beast’s face before turning back to look at Mick. 

“Thanks, Jerk!” She was laughing, and laughing looked good on her, Mick decided. She looked more free that way, and Mick could see that that was a person Sara could fall in love with. And between Sara and him, maybe at least one of them could have their happily ever after.


End file.
